Dr. Adam Henschke, Assistant Professor at the Philosophy Section of the University of Twente, has recently published a new article entitled "From Enhancement To Disenhancement To De-Enhancement: Institutional Responsibility, and the Duty of Care to Post-Enhanced Veterans" in the AJOB Neuroscience.
Abstract:
In this paper I explore the moral responsibility that is owed to post-enhanced military veterans who were enhanced with biotechnological interventions as part of their military service, but then suffer from these biotechnological interventions when returning to civilian life. By exploring two ways that these interventions can become detrimental to a veteran’s quality of life, I suggest that the institutional duty of care to post-enhanced veterans arises even though the problems arise after service ends. When we see that soldiers can become disenhanced or de-enhanced, in both cases, the military as an institution owes those post-enhanced veterans a special duty of care because of the military’s role in the initial enhancement. Finally, I argue why the conceptual clarity regarding enhancement, disenhancement, and de-enhancement is useful for assigning institutional responsibility with regard to post-enhanced veterans.
Bio:
Dr. Adam Henschke is an Assistant Professor with the Philosophy Section at the University of Twente. He is an applied ethicist, working at the intersection of ethics, technology, and national security policy. His recent work has looked at ethical issues with intelligence institutions, and with the ethical and political concepts relating to cognitive warfare. He has written extensively on the ethics of military conflict, cybersecurity, terrorism/counter-terrorism, surveillance, human military enhancement, cyber-physical systems, and medical ethics. His current research concerns the ethical and political challenges facing liberal democracies when they seek to protect against cognitive warfare and the problem of ‘brainwashing’.
To read the full article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21507740.2025.2557810
